This thesis suggests other ways of helping students resist blind submission to the discourse of the university. The primary objective is to discuss meaningful ways of transforming composition classrooms into counter hegemonic cultural environments where students can critically examine the complications of cultural dynamics and power relations within the communication process.

Synthesizing theories of social identity, goal interdependence, and conflict management, this study built and tested a theoretical model in which interdepartmental goal interdependence affects conflict outcomes between different departments through constructive controversy (i.e. the open-minded discussion for mutual benefit) dynamics adopted by employees from different departments in the organization. This study also proposes that organizational identification moderates the link between interdepartmental goal interdependence and constructive controversy. An interview sample of 129 employees from various business organizations and diverse industries in mainland China described and rated a critical incident when they had a conflict with their coworker from another department in the same organization. Results of the structural equations modeling and other analyses support the hypotheses and the hypothesized model that interdepartmental goal interdependence, specially, cooperative, competitive, and independent goals, are antecedents to employees between different departments engaging in constructive controversy and that constructive controversy in turn influences conflict outcomes, specifically, task accomplishment, employee intention to quit, and their intentions for future cooperation. Results further indicate that employee identification with the organization moderates the association of competitive interdepartmental goal interdependence with constructive controversy such that employees who identify strongly with the organization will be more likely to engage in open-minded discussion of controversy dynamics than employees who identify weakly with the organization. These results underline the positive role of employee organizational identification in conflict management, especially under competitive interdepartmental goals. Findings suggest important practical implications that employees from different departments can improve their collaboration in Chinese organizations by strengthening their common organizational identification, setting cooperative interdepartmental goal interdependence, and handling conflict through constructive controversy. The study contributes to the conflict management literature as well as the social identity theory in organizational behavior literature.

Combining theories of social motives, goal interdependence, and conflict management, this study theorized a model in which interdepartmental goal interdependence affects conflict outcomes between different departments through open-minded discussion dynamics adopted by employees from different departments in the organization. This study also proposes that social motives moderate the link between inter-departmental goal interdependence and open-minded discussion. A sample of 133 employees from different business organizations in China were interviewed to recall a critical incident when they had a conflict with their coworker from different departments. SEM results and other analysis results support the hypotheses that cooperative interdepartmental goal interdependence and competitive goal interdependence are antecedents to employees engaging in open-minded discussion in the context of interdepartmental collaboration, and that open-minded discussion in turn influences conflict outcomes, i.e. task accomplishment, relationship strengthening, and future collaboration. Results further suggest that employee’s pro-social motive moderates the relationship between competitive goal interdependence and open-minded discussion, and that proself motive moderates the relationship between cooperative goal interdependence and open-minded discussion. Findings also suggest that practitioners promote effective interdepartmental collaboration by strengthening their prosocial motive when perceiving competitive goal and proself motive when perceiving cooperative goal, setting cooperative interdepartmental goal interdependence, and handling conflict through open-minded discussion. The study contributes to conflict management literature as well as the goal interdependence theory in the organizational behavior literatures.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur ledare inom olika arbetsområden arbetar för att forma en effektiv arbetsgrupp. I syftet har även ingått att undersöka huruvida ledare är medvetna om deras ledarstil och vikten av att anpassa sin ledarstil. För att besvara syftet utfördes tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare inom tre olika områden: sälj, barn- och ungdom, samt myndighet. Resultatet har påvisat att intervjupersonerna anser att det är möjligt att bedriva ett bra och utvecklande ledarskap genom självreflektion. Vidare har det påvisats att grunden till ett bra och utvecklande ledarskap i stort handlar om ledarens bemötande av sina medmänniskor. Det är således viktigt att ledaren ser varje individ och lyckas skapa motivation bland sina nyanställda till att nå organisationens mål. En betydande faktor för att nå målet kan vara att de finns någon form av belöning. Belöningens funktion kan beskrivas som en form av draghjälp. För att nå målet kan ledaren beskrivas vara en ledstjärna som vägleder sina anställda under arbetets gång. Utöver dessa faktorer kan även ledarens personlighet, utbildning och kunskap påverka ledarens sätt att leda en grupp. Vidare kan även händelser i ledarens privat- och arbetsliv påverka hur denna leder en arbetsgrupp. Denna studie skall förhoppningsvis bidra med en grundför fortsatt forskning kring olika branschers ledarskap och dess påverkan på medarbetaren, samt vikten av ledares utbildning och kunskap. / The purpose of this study was to examine how leaders within different areas of work form effective working groups. The study also strived to determine if leaders were aware of their leadership styles or knew the importance of adapting their leadership style. In order to achieve this, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders from three different areas of work: sales; children & adolescents and government. The results from this study showed it is possible to achieve better, more dynamic leadership through self-reflection. The results also showed that good, dynamic leadership is about how the leader interacts with others. It is therefore important for a leader to make each individual feel seen and create motivation amongst new employees in order to meet the organization’s goals. One important factor could be someform of reward, since it can act as motivation. In order to accomplish goals the leader can act asa guide, leading the group through the work. Aside from these factors, the leader’s personality, education and knowledge can affect the leader’s method for leading a group. Furthermore, experiences in the leader’s personal life or work can affect how they lead a group. This study will hopefully provide a basis for further research on the leadership of different industries and its impact on employees, as well as the importance of leaders' education and knowledge.

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The eye of the storm is the calm center amidst chaos where, metaphorically speaking, mediators often begin their work. Recent research has advocated for a more holistic, relational, culturally inclusive approach to the mediation process. Such an approach requires conflict fluency as well as cultural fluency for effective mediation. This thesis explores how the intervention strategies of mediation may be enhanced through increased cultural understanding. Current theories of intercultural conflict transformation and intercultural communication are reviewed. Conflict fluency is understood through a mediation perspective. Cultural fluency is understood through cultural identity, cultural values, communication styles, and conflict styles. A case study follows the theoretical review of the literature. In this case study, a small community mediation center illustrates what is happening in the field today regarding the relationship between culture and conflict. The case study involves a 6 holistic analysis of the organization, seeking to understand intercultural competence at all levels. This includes an analysis of keystone materials, a survey of mediators, Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) results, and interviews with mediators as well as organizational leadership. The thesis concludes with a list of recommendations that may be useful to this community mediation center as well as other similar organizations. Amongst these recommendations are potentially useful training items such as intercultural conflict styles, critical moment dialogues, and other intercultural tools designed to increase mediator competence in intercultural communication.

This is a scientific essay where I investigate and reflect on issues that have to do with conflicts and conflict management in school.The essay is based on a personal experience and is written from my professional experience in order to provide a greater understanding of the complex collaboration between educators and guardians. How do we best inform guardians when something happens to their children during the school day? Is it at drop-off and pick-up or are there other good contact routes? Conflicts are something we encounter throughout life, in many different contexts. Then it is important to learn how to handle difficult situations.School and leisure center are a social environment where large groups of people interact and integrate with each other. What do the governing documents say about the cooperation between the school and the home? My essay starts with a story about a self-experienced incident. It starts with a conflict in the schoolyard where the guardians afterwards needed to be informed about what happened to their child during the school day. The conversations with the guardians are completely different. One guardian is grateful for the information received about their child, while the other guardian directly assumes a defensive position. Why? How can we educators accommodate these "dissatisfied" guardians in a good way? I will examine myself and my own reflections. In the analysis I make use of my practical wisdom that I have accumulated through the experience I have. What can I become better atin the execution of my practical professional competence in the field? The conflict management models I use to reflect on my dilemma are “Cohan`s Conflict Pyramid” and “Mini Mediation” (Hakvoort & Friberg 2019). / Detta är en vetenskaplig essä där jag undersöker och reflekterar kring frågor som har med konflikter och konflikthantering att göra på skolan. Essän utgår från en egenupplevd situation och är skriven från min yrkeserfarenhet i syfte att ge en större förståelse för det komplexa samarbetet mellan pedagoger och vårdnadshavare. Hur informerar vi vårdnadshavare på bästa sätt när någonting hänt deras barn under skoldagen. Är det vid lämning och hämtning eller finns det andra bra kontaktvägar? Konflikter är något vi stöter på genom hela livet, i många olika sammanhang. Då är det viktigt att lärt sig hantera jobbiga situationer. Skola och fritidshem är en social miljö där stora grupper och människor samspelar och integrerar med varandra. Vad säger styrdokumenten om samarbetet mellan skola och hem? Min uppsats börjar med en berättelse om en egenupplevd händelse. Den startar med enkonflikt på skolgården där vårdnadshavarna efteråt behövde informeras om vad som häntderas barn under skoldagen. Samtalen med vårdnadshavarna skiljer sig helt och hållet åt. Den ena vårdnadshavaren är tacksam för information hen får kring sitt barn, medan den andra vårdnadshavaren direkt intar en försvarsställning. Varför? Hur kan vi pedagoger tillmötesgå dessa ”missnöjda” vårdnadshavare på ett bra sätt?  Jag kommer att granska mig själv och mitt eget handlande. I analysen använder jag min praktiska klokhet som jag samlat på mig genom den erfarenhet jag har. Vad kan jag bli bättrepå i utförandet av min praktiska yrkeskompetens inom området och vad innebär tyst kunskap imin yrkesutövning? Konflikthanteringsmodellerna jag använder för att reflektera kring mitt dilemma är ”Cohans konfliktpyramid” och ”Mini Medling” (Hakvoort & Friberg 2019).

Denna studie har syftat att bidra med en förståelse av arbetsplatskonflikters socialiserande funktioner samt belysa konflikter som en vardaglig handlingsrepertoar inom organisationer. Jag ämnade att undersöka hur anställda socialiserades in i de konflikter som uppstod på arbetsplatsen och vad dessa konfliktförlopp hade för betydelse för delaktiga individer. Studiens empiriska material har bestått av semistrukturerade intervjuer, i vilket målgruppen har varit kvinnor tillhörande kvinnodominerade serviceyrken i Sverige. De kvinnor som intervjuats har berättat om egenupplevda konflikter på deras arbetsplatser. Analysen har bearbetats med utgångspunkt i Wengers (1998) teori om praktikgemenskaper samt Hochschilds (2012) studie om känsloarbete. Resultaten visade av de normer och värden som fanns inom arbetsgruppen var avgörande för kvinnornas sätt att agera i konflikter. I de arbetsgrupper där arbetsrelationer hölls på en formell nivå och emotionella band inte var framträdande förekom få meningsskiljaktigheter samt neutrala konfliktageranden när diskussioner uppstod. I de arbetsgrupper där emotionella band mellan kollegor var starka utagerades konflikter mer irrationellt och det fanns en rädsla för att ifrågasätta sociala strukturer inom gemenskapen. Detta resulterade i att konflikter ofta undveks och att individer istället använde ett selektivt utagerande av emotioner, förmedlade till specifika kollegor. Resultaten visade att den strategiska kommunikationen som förekom på samtliga arbetsplatser både hade en sammanhållande funktion samt skapade grupperingar och osäkerheter inom arbetsgruppen. Slutligen visade resultaten på att en specifik hantering av emotioner påverkade ageranden i konflikter negativt samt att det fanns starka behov av att ventilera emotioner i samband med konflikter. I de arbetsgrupper där emotioner visade sig framträdande flydde man från konflikter med orsak av att nära relationer gjorde konflikter med kollegor mer komplexa. När konflikterna sedan iscensattes blev emotionella uttryck dominerande i konflikterna. / The aim of this study was to contribute to an understanding of the socializing functions of workplace conflicts and illustrate these conflicts as everyday repertoires within organizations. I intended to research how employees could be socialized into conflicts in the workplace and what these conflicts meant for the individuals involved. The study's empirical material consisted of semi-structured interviews, in which the target group has been women belonging to women-dominated service professions in Sweden. The interviews focused on their personal experiences of conflicts in their workplaces. The analysis has been based on Wenger's (1998) theory communities of practice and Hochschild's (2012) study on emotional work. The results demonstrated by the norms and values ​​that existed within the working group were crucial to individual’s way of acting in conflicts. In the working groups where relationships were held on a formal level and the relationships between colleagues were not personal, the conflicts were few and small conflicts did not grow into major conflicts. In the working groups where emotional ties between colleagues were strong, conflicts became more irrational and there was a fear of questioning social structures within the community. As a result, conflicts were often avoided and individuals instead used a selective expression of emotions, conveyed to specific colleagues. The results showed that the strategic communication that went on in all the workplaces had a cohesive function but also created groupings and uncertainties within the workgroups. Finally, the results showed that a specific way of handling emotions affected conflict behavior negatively and that there was a strong need to ventilate emotions related to conflicts. In those working groups where emotional relationships between colleagues dominated, they often escaped from conflicts because close relationships made conflicts more complex. When conflicts took place, emotional expressions became dominant in the conflicts.

I en multimetodial studie kombinerades kvalitativa enkätundersökningar om konflikthantering, riktade till matematiklärare, med kvantitativa enkätundersökningar om konfliktfrekvenser och matematikångest, riktade till deras klasser, för att belysa om frekvensen av klassrumskonflikter och dess hantering har ett samband med matematikångest. Sex lärare deltog tillsammans med totalt 201 elever, fördelat på elva klasser på högstadiet och gymnasiet. Elevernas matematikångest utvärderades genom en modifierad svensk översättning av AMAS, som tillsammans med deras konfliktuppfattning analyserades med hjälp av variansanalys och Spearmans rangkorrelation i JASP v.0.14.1.0. Lärarnas beskrivningar analyserades med en hermeneutisk tolkningsprocess. De skillnader och likheter som uppkom i lärarnas beskrivningar jämfördes med skillnader och likheter i elevernas svar. Resultaten visar på att det finns en positiv korrelation mellan matematikångest och uppfattningen av konflikters frekvenser, oavsett konflikttyp. Matematikångest kopplat till inlärning påverkas i en högre utsträckning än matematikångest kopplat till prestation. Det finns endast indikationer på att en modifierade MmE-modell (mMmE) som konflikthanteringsmetod, med förståelse som målfokus i det första skedet och en övergång till Mm-modellen vid mer akuta situationer, kan ha en proaktiv effekt på denna korrelation. Resultatet behöver förankras med djupare forskning innan någon praktisk rekommendationkan ges till yrkesverksamma lärare. / This multi-method study aimed to shed light on correlation between the frequency of classroom conflicts, conflict management, and mathematics anxiety. This study combined qualitative surveys on conflict management aimed at mathematics teachers and quantitative surveys on the frequency of conflicts and mathematics anxiety directed to their pupils. Six teachers and 201 pupils participated, spread across eleven classes in grade 8-9 and highschool. The students' mathematical anxiety was evaluated through a modified translation of AMAS, which were analyzed together with their perception of conflicts using variance analysis and Spearman’s rank-order correlation in JASP v.0.14.1.0. The teachers' descriptions were analyzed with a hermeneutic interpretation process and compared between them inparallel with the students' results. The results show there is a correlation between math anxiety and the frequency of conflicts, both specific conflicts and a general perception of conflicts. Learning mathematics anxiety was affected to a greater extent than mathematics evaluation anxiety. There are only indicators that a modified version of the conflict management method MmE-model can have a proactive effect on this correlation. This part of the results need to be anchored with more research before any practical recommendation can be given.

Despite the growing prominence of ‘international contact groups’ in the field of peacemaking, there is little academic attention for such ad hoc informal negotiating groups of third-party states. This study seeks to contribute to this understudied topic by investigating under what conditions contact groups are most likely to achieve negotiation success. Based on the framework of ‘recognition theory’, I argue that respect for each member as equal partner of the negotiating group helps to prevent obstructive behaviour. It is therefore hypothesised that ‘recognition for all members of the contact group enhances the likelihood of reaching agreement on a peacemaking strategy’. This is tested by means of a structured focused comparison in a most-similar cases design, studying two contact groups that operated during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. I subsequently probe the generalisability of my findings by extending the analysis with a third case of contact group negotiations on Syria in 2012. The empirical findings provide support for the hypothesis and hint at the theory’s relevance in today’s context of increasingly dispersed power and mediation leverage. Nevertheless, further research is needed to establish with greater validity and reliability the effect of recognition and how it relates to other conditions for success.